Decision on city council leadership looms four weeks after election

A decision on the leadership of Birmingham City Council could be made within days - but despite a meeting being scheduled, a conclusion is not guaranteed.

The authority has been without leadership for almost four weeks now following the 7 May election, which left no party with enough seats to take control.

Behind the scenes, multiple discussions have been taking place between parties to find the best way forward.

A meeting at the council house is now in the diary for Friday at 18:00 BST and after almost a month, it is hoped that means there is a solution on the cards.

Reform UK took the most seats in last month's election, but with only 23 it holds fewer than half the 51 required for a majority.

Days later, the new leader of the party in Birmingham, Jex Parkin, said it was "unable to form an administration" because of a left-wing majority among other councillors.

In a statement, he said other groups on the council had "made it clear that they refuse to work with us".

Four weeks on, the most likely proposal seems to be a deal between the second largest party, the Greens, who have 19 councillors, the Lib Dems who have 12 and the Better Birmingham Independent councillors.

Between them, they could make a coalition of 40 - still well short of a majority of 51.

In theory, this could be workable. Most of the day-to-day business is done by the council's cabinet and major votes are only for matters such as the budget.

But internal council sources say they are worried a minority administration could prove a nightmare on those key votes.

There's also a suggestion that there could be a rotating leadership between the Lib Dems and the Greens - which would be highly unusual in local government.

It is not rare for elections with no clear outcome to need some time for negotiations on any kind of coalition, but the six-way split here is making it particularly complicated.

Plus, Birmingham isn't a straightforward prospect - with government commissioners still in place to manage finances and the bin strike very much unresolved.

Earlier this week it was revealed long-awaited changes to bin collections in the city, including the introduction of food waste containers, were delayed again due to the lack of leadership.

So, if the green/yellow/grey coalition is put forward, will the other parties vote for it?

Reform ruled itself out of coalitions despite being the biggest party, saying nobody would work with it, and there are some rumours that the Conservatives could be putting together their own alternative solution - although it remains to be seen what that would look like.

Labour says it will abstain from any vote on Friday - basically not getting in the way of anybody but not supporting them either.

But one thing is clear - the council needs an administration and quickly.

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